This chapter may be referred to as the Kyoto Protocol Response Act.

The Legislature of Alabama hereby finds as follows:

(1) The United States is a signatory to the 1992 United Nations Framework Convention on Global Climate Change (FCCC).

(2) The Kyoto Protocol to expand the scope of the FCCC was negotiated in December 1997, in Kyoto, Japan, requiring the United States to reduce emissions of greenhouse gases such as carbon dioxide and methane by seven percent from 1990 emission levels during the period 2008 to 2012, with similar reduction obligations for other major industrial nations.

(3) Developing nations, including China, India, Mexico, Indonesia, and Brazil are exempt from greenhouse gas emission limitation requirements in the FCCC.

(4) Developing nations refused in the Kyoto negotiations to accept any new commitments for greenhouse gas emission limitations through the Kyoto Protocol or other agreements.

(5) With respect to new commitments under the FCCC, President Clinton pledged on October 22, 1997, that the United States would not assume binding obligations unless key developing nations meaningfully participate in this effort.

(6) On July 25, 1997, the United States Senate adopted Senate Resolution No. 98 by a vote of 95-0, expressing the Sense of the Senate that, inter alia, the United States should not be a signatory to any protocol or other agreement regarding the Framework Convention on Climate Change that would require the advice and consent of the Senate to ratification, and would mandate new commitments to mitigate greenhouse gas emissions for the Developed Country Parties, unless the protocol or other agreement also mandates specific scheduled commitments within the same compliance period to mitigate greenhouse gas emissions for Developing Country Parties.

(7) The Kyoto Protocol fails to meet the tests established for acceptance of new climate change commitments by President Clinton and by U.S. Senate Resolution No. 98.

(8) Achieving the emission reductions proposed by the Kyoto Protocol would require more than a 35 percent reduction in projected United States carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gas emissions during the period 2008 to 2012.

(9) Developing countries exempt from emission limitations under the Kyoto Protocol are expected to increase their rates of fossil fuel use over the next two decades, and to surpass the United States and other industrialized countries in total emissions of greenhouse gases.

(10) Increased emissions of greenhouse gases by developing countries would offset any potential environmental benefits associated with emissions reductions achieved by the United States and by other industrial nations.

(11) Economic impact studies by the U.S. Government estimate that legally binding requirements for the reduction of U.S. greenhouse gases to 1990 emission levels would result in the loss of more than 900,000 jobs in the United States, sharply increased energy prices, reduced family incomes and wages, and severe losses of output in energy-intensive industries such as aluminum, steel, rubber, chemicals, and utilities.

(12) The failure to provide for commitments by developing countries in the Kyoto Protocol creates an unfair competitive imbalance between industrial and developing nations, potentially leading to the transfer of jobs and industrial development from the United States to developing countries.

(13) Federal implementation of the Kyoto Protocol, if ratified by the United States Senate, would entail new federal legislation whose form and requirements cannot be predicted at this time, but could include national energy taxes or emission control allocation and trading schemes that would preempt state-specific programs intended to reduce emissions of greenhouse gases.

(14) Piecemeal or other uncoordinated state regulatory initiatives intended to reduce emissions of greenhouse gases may be inconsistent with subsequent congressional determinations concerning the Kyoto Protocol, and with related federal legislation implementing the Kyoto Protocol.

(15) Individual state responses to the Kyoto Protocol, including development of new regulatory programs intended to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, are premature prior to Senate ratification of that protocol, in its current or amended form, and congressional enactment of related implementing legislation.

(a) Effective immediately, the Director of the Alabama Department of Environmental Management shall refrain from proposing or promulgating any new regulations intended in whole or in part to reduce emissions of greenhouse gases, as such gases are defined by the Kyoto Protocol, from the residential, commercial, industrial, electric utility, or transportation sectors unless such reductions are required under existing statutes.

(b) In the absence of a resolution or other act of the Legislature of the State of Alabama approving same, the Director of the Alabama Department of Environmental Management shall not submit to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency or to any other agency of the federal government any legally enforceable commitments related to the reduction of greenhouse gases, as such gases are defined by the Kyoto Protocol unless such reductions are required under existing statutes.

Nothing in this chapter shall be construed to limit or to impede state or private participation in any on-going voluntary initiatives to reduce emissions of greenhouse gases, including, but not limited to, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's Green Lights program, the U.S. Department of Energy's Climate Challenge program, and similar state and federal initiatives relying on voluntary participation.

This chapter shall remain in effect until repealed by an act of the Legislature of Alabama, or until ratification of the Kyoto Protocol by the United States Senate and enactment of federal legislation implementing the Kyoto Protocol.